ISRAEL:Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert faced a major challenge to his pledge to stay in power yesterday when tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv to try to force him to quit over failures in last year's war in Lebanon.
Three days after an official inquiry savaged the handling of the offensive against Hizbullah guerrillas, the veteran survivor of Israeli politics appeared to have weathered the worst of the initial storm - freezing out his own foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, who called for his resignation, and securing backing in parliament.
As night fell, demonstrators crowded Tel Aviv's Yitzhak Rabin Square calling on Mr Olmert to go. Organisers said up to 70,000 attended the protest.
However, Mr Olmert has withstood popularity ratings in the single digits for most of the nine months since the 34-day war despite opinion polls showing at least two Israelis in three want him to quit.
On Wednesday, he fended off a public call to resign from Ms Livni, his deputy leader.
Israelis have long been accustomed to internal tensions in their coalition governments and relations between Mr Olmert and Ms Livni, who would be poised to replace the prime minister if he stood down, have been strained for months.